Polylactic Acid (PLA) is one of the most widely used thermoplastics in 3D printing, specifically in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers. PLA is widely used on hobbyist level printers for its speed and overall part quality, but it's not very popular on higher-end machines because it lacks strength and resistance to heat and chemicals. That makes it unsuitable for any kind of applications that rely on those qualities, like jigs and fixtures. However, there are characteristics of PLA that could make it very useful for engineers or hobbyists on certain types of projects.

MakerBot Method is MakerBot's newest addition to their 3D printer portfolio. A pioneer in the professional segment category built with improved, patented industrial technologies from Stratasys®, combined with MakerBot's industry-leading accessibility and smart workflow features. Method will allow organizations to adopt 3D printing at a larger scale. Industrial designers and mechanical engineers will now be able to accelerate their innovation process and become more agile. Method is designed for professionals who need immediate access to a 3D printer in order to speed up their design cycles.

Makerbot has announced an all new printer and printer platform; the MakerBot Method. A “performance” printer which bridges the gap between smaller desktop 3D printing units and industrial printing systems by bringing industrial features to a professional printing platform at a significantly lower cost.

Anyone who has compared traditional FDM (sometimes called Fused Filament Fabrication) to other 3D printing technologies, such as PolyJet, SLA and SLS, has definitely thought at one time or another, “This technology is both inexpensive to print and strong, but I really wish it had better resolution.” In this blog, we explore how to make FDM look as good as other technologies while remaining inexpensive and not impacting overall strength. We’ve printed a horde of Easter Island Moai to play around with the top three ways to smooth PLA parts.

Good looking parts start with great design. This is no secret among the engineering community. Thanks to software like SOLIDWORKS and the many advancements in 3D printing, building complex objects in the digital world and translating them into the real world is more achievable than ever. In this article, I demonstrate how to optimize your design and orient your 3D part file for successful and great looking prints using an FDM-style 3D printer such as the MakerBot Replicator+.

MakerBot Tough PLA is an amazing material that combines the low cost and ease-of-use that regular PLA offers with strength that is similar to (or in some situations better than) ABS. In this blog, we investigate one of those surprising situations by exploring Tough PLA and printed living hinges and cantilever snap fits.

You got a MakerBot, but now what? Before your 3D printer can understand and successfully print a part file, it needs a software to orient your part relative to the build tray, break the object down into layers and prepare a toolpath for the printing head to follow. In this blog, we dive into what MakerBot Print software is and why such slicing softwares are so important to your print.

For many design projects, 3D printed parts made of plastics are not strong enough to withstand extreme impact, high heat or other stress factors. This can limit 3D printed parts, especially in PLA, to the prototyping phase of development. To put this challenge to the test, I created an experiment on concrete molding with tough PLA on a MakerBot Replicator+. This is what I found.

After working with larger Stratasys machines in our print shop, we were excited to finally get our hands on the 5th Generation MakerBot Replicator+ and see what's so special about these desktop printers. This is what we found.

Do you have a MakerBot 3D printer that you're ready to put to use? Or are you considering purchasing a MakerBot desktop printer in the near future? We tagged along with our engineering intern Chris Brewer to compare his experience using the MakerBot Replicator with features from the newly released MakerBot Replicator+. Here's what we found:

Creating New Products and Categories in the Medical Device Industry

If you are in the medical device industry and haven't adopted 3D printing, your ability to innovate faster than the competition is at a disadvantage. Companies are 3D printing innovative, functional parts and creating new products and categories daily. Take a look at how 3D printing is making waves with external devices and systems.